3.3 Volcanic Landforms


Vocabulary

Shield Volcano: A wide, gently sloping mountain.
Cinder Cone: A steep, cone-shaped hill or mountain.
Composite Volcano: Tall, cone-shaped mountains in which layers of lava alternate with layers of ash.
Caldera: A huge hole that forms after a volcano collapses inward.
Volcanic Neck: When magma hardens in a volcano's pipe a volcano neck forms.
Dike: When magma forces itself across many rock layers and then hardens it is called a dike
Sill: When magma squeezes between layers of rock it forms a sill.
Batholith: A mass of rock formed when a large body of magma cools inside the crust.

Outline

Landforms from Lava and Ash

  • Shield Volcanoes
    • Layers of lava pour out and harden
    • Eventually the lava builds a gently sloping mountains
      • Ex. Mauna Loa
  • Cinder Cone Volcanoes
    • When the lava is thick, it forms a cinder cone volcanoes
      • Ex. Paricutin
  • Composite volcanoes
    • Tall cone shaped mountains
      • Ex. Mt. Fuji and Mt. St. Helens
  • Lava Plateaus
    • After an eruption, sometimes the lava forms a plateau instead of a mountain
      • Ex. The Columbia Plateau
  • Calderas
    • After a volcano erupts and all the lava is gone, the volcano implodes and turns into a hole'
      • Ex. Crater Lake in Oregon